PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — When Justin Thomas’ day at TPC Sawgrass was completed on Saturday, he let loose an prolonged exhalation and rolled his eyes as he walked off the ninth inexperienced.
Thomas gained The Players Championship final yr, and but he regarded as relieved to have survived the day Saturday as he had been to elevate the trophy a yr in the past.
Trying to grow to be the primary participant ever to defend a Players title, Thomas isn’t main the event. He’s tied for fifteenth by way of 36 holes at 3-under. But he survived golf’s equal of going 12 rounds with Mike Tyson and dwelling to inform about it.
The 2022 Players Championship has been a problem of epic proportions, with climate delays pushing the end to Monday and situations which have messed with the minds of the very best gamers on the earth.
Tommy Fleetwood and Tom Hoge, every of whom shot 6-under 66 of their respective opening rounds, each accomplished the primary spherical on Thursday due to their early tee instances. They nonetheless lead the event getting into Sunday.
That, nevertheless, might be as a result of Hoge didn’t need to play a single gap on Saturday as a result of his second-round tee time was so late, and Fleetwood performed solely three holes on a day when the winds had been sustained at 25 to 30 mph and gusting larger than that.
Joaquin Niemann, Keith Mitchell and Anirban Lahiri, every of whom shot 5-under 67 of their first spherical, are one shot behind Hoge and Fleetwood, as a result of they, too, by no means started their respective second rounds.
Play will resume at 8:15 a.m. Sunday with 27 gamers nonetheless having to finish the second spherical. The third spherical will start Sunday as nicely, with a Monday final-round end scheduled.
The common rating for the second spherical, when play was suspended, was 75.37, and it’s more likely to go larger Sunday morning because the spherical winds up. The common was 75.41 for the opening spherical in 2007, the primary yr The Players was in May. The highest ever for the opening two rounds was 76.19 in 2000 when it was in March.
“Insane,” Thomas referred to as the problem.
With temperatures anticipated to dip into the 30s in a single day Saturday, a frost delay can’t be discounted earlier than gamers are in a position to play Sunday morning.
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Thomas’s 69 and Bubba Watson’s 68 had been the low scores of the second spherical, with each at 3-under for the event. They had been amongst simply 4 gamers who broke par within the second spherical, with Keegan Bradley (71) and Billy Horschel (70) the opposite two.
“You’re speaking about an excessive day right now,’’ Brooks Koepka stated after capturing 81 in his second spherical.
“Today was one of many hardest rounds I ever performed,’’ Daniel Berger, who’s 2-under by way of 36 holes, stated. “Every time I regarded up, the ball was going additional and additional and away from the flagstick. I hit it 40 yards offline very often on the entrance 9. The situations had been robust. [I’m] simply completely happy to be completed and get some relaxation.’’
Rory McIlroy, who’s 2-over, tried to recall a day as troublesome as Saturday and stated, “Bethpage ’09 U.S. Open might be the closest I’ve skilled to one thing like this.’’
Bradley stated the wind was so wild it was unattainable to correctly membership your self.
“I hit 9-iron from 95 yards [on the 12th hole] after which a pair holes later I hit 9-iron from 208 yards [on 16],’’ Bradley stated. “To me, there’s no yardage. It’s simply the trajectory of your ball, no matter membership you will get to suit that window, that’s the shot. We’re fortunate that it’s moist. Man, I’ll inform you, 17 and 18 are taking part in onerous. I don’t know if I’ve ever performed two holes as onerous as that.’’
Sam Ryder stated: “I stay 20 minutes away. I play this course fairly usually. I’m taking a look at pictures [and] traces I’d by no means normally take. It’s like I’m taking part in a distinct model of golf, so I’m sort of simply deleting these from the reminiscence financial institution and simply making an attempt to decide to sure traces from sure tees and stuff like that.’’
Thomas referred to as your complete day “very bizarre.’’
“It was clearly onerous to get right into a rhythm,’’ he stated. “[I] had loads of completely different feelings — first off pondering it appears to be like like we had been on the proper aspect of the draw and being fairly enthusiastic about that after which realizing that was very a lot not the actual fact after which simply having to recover from that as fast as I may as a result of it’s clearly irritating, particularly after I really feel like I’m taking part in nicely.
“I’m thrilled with how I performed and the way I competed right now. It was a really, very robust day, and I simply stayed very affected person and executed nicely.’’
